The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 2751 by Angharad Copyright© 2015 Angharad

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This is a work of fiction any mention of real people, places or institutions is purely coincidental and does not imply that they are as suggested in the story.
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“Goodness a field trip with the expert,” said Helen.

“Yes, if there’s anything you don’t understand, just say so,” quipped Trish and I snorted and Helen gasped.

“She’s likely to find acorns or hazels before us.”

“How is that?” Helen seemed shocked.

“She’s closer to the ground.”

Helen chuckled but as we moved beyond the damaged part of the wood my prediction proved correct. She was busy talking to Danni about playing football for England when Trish, who like me had been scouring the ground for the tell tale signs of dormouse occupation—the cast off shells of hazel and acorns which had been opened by our quarry.

“Ah ha,” she yelled frightening a pigeon who flew almost vertically up to a branch some thirty feet from the ground. “Got one, I think.” She handed it to me and I checked it under my hand lens, but was pretty sure she was right. She found three or four more and she did seem to see them quicker than anyone else.

We quickly surveyed the rest of the more promising sites and each time we found dormouse eaten food waste. Two of the shells weren’t filled with mud, so were probably this year’s. The others could have been any age. Once they fill up with soil they could have been there years.

“Waddya think, Cathy?”

“The two empty shells are certainly dormouse and probably this year. The other ones could be older,” my conclusion was ambiguous. “However, the only way is to do nest boxes or tubes.”

“If I gave you the next stage, how long would it take to confirm?”

“How long is a piece of string, it might be a few days it could be months if at all. The tubes are the next thing usually, but dormice do their own thing, so it might happen tomorrow or not at all. Bedding material in a tube is considered evidence of dormouse activity.”

“I’ll instruct the landowner to wait a month and to allow you or your team that month to do your full survey. Is that going to be long enough?”

“For this year, especially if it gets any colder.”

“Of course, they go into hibernation mode don’t they?”

“Or just become torpid.”

“Presumably it works?”

“So far so good. The problem is food supply, if it’s plentiful, they continue if not they cut their losses and hibernate, which is fine if it doesn’t get too warm, too early. Then they’re stuffed, nothing to replace the fat they use up in warming themselves up to activity levels.”

“Do the best you can and I’ll try and talk the landowner round.”

“He’ll want to get the work started before the weather deteriorates.”

“Tough, I’ll tell him we’ve found probable occupation by dormice, so if he damages the site any further, I’ll ask you to calculate how many are likely to have been there and go for that number to prosecute him at a thousand pounds per animal.”

“Surely no court would impose fines based upon probabilities, will it?”

“I sincerely hope he doesn’t know that.” We parted soon afterwards and she went off to do what she does with the landowner while I drove the others home aware that Simon wanted to watch the rugby in peace.

After it had finished and Wales played the giant killer card and beat England by three points—a penalty taken by the ice cool Dan Biggar who stepped up to do the kicking since the injury to Halfpenny in the warm up games. Biggar is a Scots name so he can’t be bad. Simon was cock-a-hoop at Wales’ win and apparently the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were there supporting them—he’s president or patron of the WRU. His brother, was there supporting England.

Simon said it was a cracker of a game, the action flowing back and fore and was anybody’s, though Wales have lost two more players through injury. If it goes on at this rate, they’ll be calling up Siân before the tournament is over. They have games against Fiji and the Aussies left and both of those will physical according to Si. I suppose they just need to conjure up the Rorke’s Drift spirit, when the South Wales Borderers won eleven Victoria Crosses in one day.

I didn’t see it, I was writing a report for Helen with initial findings of probable occupation by dormouse. One nest in the thirty or so tubes I’ll put up in the next week and we’ve got a confirmation and the landowner has big problems. I don’t have any sympathy, it’s obviously profiteering and vandalism. The solar panels need to be put on all public buildings not clear felling woodland and using the panels as an excuse. Tom is talking about putting them on the roof of our house, but the return for the investment probably isn’t cost effective, though he’d be looking to try and save pollution rather than make money. It looks like we’re going to get nuclear whether we want one or not, though I’m not sure I like the idea of Chinese built reactors. What happened to British engineering, which at one time led the world?

Danielle sat and watched the rugby with her dad and grandfather. She said she enjoyed it but wasn’t too happy that Wales won. She thought England played better and Wales winning went against the run of play. I only saw the highlights on the news and then they didn’t make any mention of a British woman winning the World road race Championships, even though by then they knew the result. The Sunday papers all had stuff on the rugby but few had much on Lizzie Amitstead’s achievement. So well done to her on being, the World Cup series, the Commonwealth Games and now the World championship winner, all at the same time.

They showed the highlights on Sunday but I missed them I was still away after taking Danielle down to the coach for her game for Portsmouth Ladies, Si had agreed to collect her until he realised Scotland were playing. So I had to cover the shortfall or try and talk Julie or Sammi into going instead.

Looks like Sagan has won the World Road Race Championships—he’s taken quite a few stages on the TdF, including the green jersey, so good luck to him. Sammi went to get her sister and I went to bed with Trish still nagging me about being allowed up to watch the lunar eclipse. I wasn’t sure, it would mean rising for ten past two in the morning to see the eclipse cover the moon and another two hours or more to see it lift.